The Literary Institution in Chile During the Dictatorship: The Role of the Writer Enrique Campos MenéndezLa institución literaria en Chile durante la dictadura: el rol del escritor Enrique Campos Menéndez

Abstract

© 2023 Acero et al.The purpose of this work is to characterize the situation of literature under the Pinochet dictatorship, especially the figure of Enrique Campos Menéndez, who was cultural adviser to the ‘Junta’ and controversial winner of the Premio Nacional de Literatura in 1986. Together with him, the cultural values of the new regime were reviewed on the basis of Jacques Dubois concept of literary institution. In order to investigate the literature promoted and validated at that time, some significant works by Enrique Campos Menéndez were also analyzed, such as Chile vence al marxismo (1973), Kupen (1940) and Sólo el viento (1964), the first a propagandistic text that severely criticized the government of the Unidad Popular and even induced coup d’état, as for the last two, these were reedited and put back into circulation during the dictatorship, which made them the target of traces of the cultural re-foundation sought by the new regime.